FourFourTwo.com Football Rich List 2009

The FourFourTwo.com Football Rich List 2009 has a new man at the top. The billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who has a stake in Championship club QPR, is the world`s eighth richest man with an estimated fortune of £18.4bn.

Mittal, 59, who lives in London, is already well-known to the Loftus Road faithful since he spent £200,000 purchasing a 20% stake in the club in December 2007 and has been tipped as a potential buyer of Flavio Briatore`s 54% in the club.

Number two in the list, now available in full at FourFourTwo.com, is Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, the owner of Manchester City. Sheikh Mansour has funded the spending spree at City and last month took sole ownership of the club when he bought the final 10% of shares held by former owner Thaksin Shinawatra. The price was not disclosed but Mansour had spent £250m on buying his stake up until then and another £200m on players such as Robinho, Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry and Emmanuel Adebayor. Mansour, who is worth £17bn, is the brother of the ruler of the oil-rich Abu Dhabi, the biggest of the United Arab Emirates.

Last year`s list was headed by Sheikh Mansour and Lakshmi Mittal was number two.

Bouncing back at number three is Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich who has seen his value increase by £800 million to £7.8 billion. Despite a costly divorce, the 42-year-old Russian still has a string of property, art and yachting assets world-wide.

Hugh Sleight, Editor in Chief of FourFourTwo magazine said: "Despite his enormous wealth, Mittal crept in under the radar at QPR because of the media focus on Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone. But the real financial power at Loftus Road lies with the Indian. It`s a signal of just how wealthy he is that even a small recovery in the economy can give him a £6bn bump.

'Foreign investors continue to be attracted to our national game despite recession, competition and the dubious money-making opportunities that investing in football offer. As a result, this is again our richest ever rich list with 19 new entries, a new number one and a combined value of £69bn. To make it into our list of the 100 wealthiest people in UK football, you now have to be worth at least £15m and, despite the talk of inflated player wages, that rules out all but a couple of handfuls of elite performers.'

David Beckham is still in a league of his own when it comes to players in the FourFourTwo.com Football Rich List with a wallet-busting fortune of £125m. Chelsea and Manchester City have four players making the lineup.

FourFourTwo`s Editor in Chief, Hugh Sleight, said: "Beckham at number one won`t come as a surprise to anyone. The real story is at numbers 2 and 3 where Michael Owen is clinging on from Wayne Rooney. In 12 months` time, Rooney will have eclipsed his new team-mate off the pitch, just as he has on it."